


Pink Moon charm

by copperwings



Series: Drabble challenge prompts [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, keith is oblivious, lance is obvious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 06:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13405218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperwings/pseuds/copperwings
Summary: In which Lance talks a lot and Keith is oblivious.





	Pink Moon charm

**Author's Note:**

> I posted a drabble challenge list on tumblr, I'm posting the prompts I got here as well.  
> The original ficlet is [here](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/post/169828552304/for-the-drabble-thing-86-and-klance). The prompt was Klance and “Fine, don’t say anything and make me worry.”

If there is one thing that’s certain in this universe and all parallel ones, it’s that Lance never shuts up. Sometimes Keith suspects the guy is like a talking machine that gets recharged by talking _more_.

When they’re on a supply run to a nearby moon, Lance talks the entire way there and back. Keith tunes him out after a couple of minutes and only looks to his right when the chattering stops.

Lance is glaring at him. “You weren’t even listening,” he accuses.

“Sorry,” Keith says. “Zoned out.”

Lance huffs and shuts up for about four minutes.

It must be a world record or something.

Then Lance spots the moon they’re aiming for. “Hey look, there it is! Whoa, it’s _actually_ pink? I thought they just called it the Pink Moon for some other reason, but it actually looks like a huge-ass bubblegum pink… _moon_.”

Lance’s enthusiasm is adorable. Keith rolls his eyes, hides his smile into a cough and then concentrates on navigating them to the landing bay.

Well, sometimes it’s useful that Lance does talking for at least five people, because that means that Keith gets to hang back and watch while Lance negotiates with the supply guy. It must be all that practice Lance has in the art of talking, because he is _really_ _good_ at talking people into submission. The supply guy looks like he doesn’t know what hit him when they finally leave dragging their hover carriage after them.

“They don’t call me the master negotiator for nothing,” Lance says, cocking finger guns at Keith after they’ve loaded the supplies on the shuttle and leave the moon. “Look, I even got us these complimentary Pink Moon key charms.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not as impressive as you talking that guy into giving you a half-off discount on most of the engine parts Hunk requested,” Keith points out.

“Yeah, but do Hunk’s engine parts glow in the dark, hmm?” Lance asks, dangling the key charm in front of Keith’s eyes.

Keith makes an irritated noise because he can’t see where he’s going. He ends up snatching the key charm from Lance’s extended hand and shoving it into his pocket so he can navigate them home without running into an asteroid or something.

Keith finds the key charm again when he’s getting ready for bed that night. He snorts at it fondly and hangs it off his bedside lamp.

When he switches the light off he sees that it actually does glow in the dark. The tacky moon swings from the lamp and Keith smiles at it before turning his back and going to sleep.

-

Keith notices the silence gradually, but the realization hits him like a hammer in the head. One day he just _notices_ how the spaces he occupies are not filled with Lance’s constant flood of words anymore.

What’s up with that?

Not that he _misses_ Lance’s constant babbling or anything. He’s just used to it.

He points the unusual quietness out to Pidge as they’re sitting in the lounge.

Pidge looks up from her computer screen and frowns. “What do you mean? Lance is Lance. I haven’t noticed anything weird.”

“But usually he talks _so much_ , and now he’s been, I don’t know, _quiet_?” Keith makes a gesture with his hands that’s supposed to express _something_ but he’s not entirely sure what.

The worried frown on Pidge’s face melts into a snort. “Oh, huh. Well that’s all on you.” She grins and elbows Keith in the side. She has really sharp elbows.

Keith pushes his hair out of his eyes and tries to look like an embodiment of a question mark. “What do you mean?”

Pidge’s face has a hint of you-should-figure-out-your-own-messes when she regards Keith over the edge of her glasses. “Well. Lance only usually talks a lot around you.”

Keith blinks. “What?”

Pidge rolls her eyes and turns back to whatever software she’s developing. “You should talk to Lance,” she says.

Keith lets his hair fall back over his eyes and tries to pry more information out of Pidge, but she won’t be budged. Eventually Keith leaves the lounge and starts his quest to find Lance.

He pokes his head into the shuttle bay where Hunk is knee-deep into engine parts and looking very happy about it. No Lance.

He tries the bridge, but only finds Shiro and Allura, plotting their course for the next few days.

Eventually, he finds Lance in the dining room, sitting in one of the chairs and bouncing a ball against the wall. Keith follows the repetitive motion of the ball for a moment: from Lance’s hand to the wall, one bounce off the floor and back to his hand again. His aim and hand-eye coordination are excellent, because it looks like he’s not even paying attention to the ball, yet somehow it still always ends up back in his hand.

“Hey,” Keith finally says.

Lance startles and the ball bounces away. He dives after the ball and once it’s securely back in his hand he turns to look at Keith. “Uh. Hi.”

“What’s up?” Keith asks. He’s never been good at inquiring if everything is okay with people, so this will have to do.

“Nothing much,” Lance says. He tosses the ball up a few times and catches it.

Keith half-expects an enthusiastic flow of words directed at him any second now, but Lance remains uncharacteristically quiet.

“Seriously, is something wrong?” Keith asks, because it looks like someone superglued Lance’s lips together.

“No,” Lance says, looking at the ball as he throws it up and catches it when it falls. There is an undertone in his voice that Keith can’t place.

Keith shakes his head and huffs. “Fine, don’t say anything and make me worry.”

Lance looks at him then. “What, like you care?”

Keith stares at him incredulously. “What do you mean? Of course I care.”

Lance snorts. “Doesn’t seem like it.” He fiddles with the ball in his hands.

Keith steps closer. “I’m… not following at all,” he says, because he’s not.

“Well, not like you want to listen to me rambling. You don’t even pay attention to half of what I’m saying,” Lance mutters.

That’s when the undertone in Lance’s voice registers. Lance is annoyed. _No_ , Keith corrects himself. Lance is _hurt_ , because he thinks Keith doesn’t care about what he has to say.

But why would Lance be hurt over that?

Keith looks at the ball in Lance’s hands, and suddenly it clicks. All the small presents Lance always gives him, off-handedly. Like that Pink Moon key charm, the sunglasses from the space mall, the jar of goo that looked disgusting but ended up being really good.

Pidge said Lance only talks a lot when Keith is near.

Suddenly it all makes sense, and Keith feels like he’s the slowest person on this side of the universe. The realization hits him like an ice pick straight to his gut, and in a flash of memories everything he knows about Lance is rearranged and shown in a new light.

“Oh,” Keith breathes. “Oh. Shit. I, um. I didn’t know.”

Lance looks at him like he’s kind of stupid.

Keith thinks the look might be entirely justified at this point.

Keith shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He’s not sure how to proceed, now that he’s finally caught up with what’s going on with Lance. He swallows, and looks at Lance, and Lance just gives him a smile that twists Keith’s insides into threefold knots.

Lance holds out a hand, and Keith takes it. Lance tugs him out of the dining room by said hand, and _there_ it is. That stream of words that Keith is so used to hearing.

“So I was thinking we could go see this sweet-ass space arcade next time we hit the mall in the K3 solar system, and also I have a ton of movies I’ve kind of been saving because I was hoping we could watch them together, and…”

The stream of words is the same as it used to be. But now Keith is actually listening.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr.](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
